Enlightenment and its critics

The intellectual and political legacies of the Enlightenment endure in our times, whether we aspire to orient ourselves by them or contest their claims. Whenever norms of secularism, human rights, or justice are debated, we are positioning ourselves vis-à-vis the Enlightenment, which provides important intellectual, moral, and political resources for critical thought. Immanuel Kant’s dictum, “Have courage to use your own reason!” succinctly captures the Enlightenment claim of emancipation through the exercise of reason. In the face of feudality and authoritarianism, the Enlightenment intellectuals enunciate ideals of equality, rights, and rationality as a way out of domination towards freedom. Contesting the legitimization of social inequalities, the Enlightenment, it is claimed, influenced progressive political thought including liberalism and socialism.

Enabling a critical reflection on political norms and practices, it has fostered the accountability of institutions, equality before law, and the transformation of social relations. Emancipatory movements for suffrage, abolition of slavery and civil liberties can all be traced back to the Enlightenment, even as it continues to inspire contemporary social and political movements. The Enlightenment idea of individual rights and dignity, it is believed, enables the exercise of political agency and expands individual freedom.

However, as has been pointed out by both scholars of Postcolonial Studies as well as Holocaust Studies, Enlightenment’s promise of attaining freedom through the exercise of reason has ironically resulted in domination by reason itself. Along with progress and
emancipation, it has brought colonialism, slavery, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

The talk will engage with the contradictory consequences of the Enlightenment forthe postcolonial world.

Nikita Dhawan holds the Chair in Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Technical University Dresden. Her research and teaching focuses on global justice, human rights, democracy and decolonization. She received the Käthe Leichter Award in 2017 for outstanding achievements in the pursuit of women’s and gender studies and in support of the women’s movement and the achievement of gender equality. Selected publications include: Impossible Speech: On the Politics of Silence and Violence (2007); Reimagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities (ed., 2019); Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans: Critical Theories of Decolonization (forthcoming, Duke University Press). In 2023, she was awarded the Gerda Henkel Visiting Professorship at Stanford University and the Thomas Mann Fellowship, Los Angeles.